4206 Duval St., 78751.
Hyde Park Bar and Grill has been a well-known quaint establishment in Austin, Texas since 1982. It is a great place to go on a Sunday because they offer brunch service and ehhmm, a few drinks on the menu too. As I walked in, I noticed right away the bar area in the dead front center of the restaurant, or house as I would call it. They were serving mimosas and bloody Mary’s all morning.
Still a little groggy from the night before and waiting on a friend, we order a half order of their famous fries. Their fries are battered dipped then fried. The batter reminds me faintly of another restaurants calamari batter… buttermilk and seasoned batter. Any how, they are famous and they sure were good. They came with the special Hyde Park sauce which is a mayonnaise mixture. We were afraid that the half order would be too much, but as we started talking, the fries disappeared almost instantaneously.
I’m not a big fan of breakfast food, so I stayed away from the brunch menu… and went straight to the entrees. It was a close battle, whenever I see CFS (chicken fried steak) on the menu, I get sidetracked… No, I told myself I should try to eat a healthier meal for lunch because a big dinner awaits. Healthier meal does not necessarily mean healthy, just healthier. I ordered the steamed vegetable plate which is an anyway-you-like-it combination of 4 of their side dishes. On mines was the macaroni and cheese, cilantro Basmati rice, corn and cheese tamales, and steamed broccoli with lemon pesto butter on the side $8.95, not bad. The mac and cheese was the more runny kind, not the grainy type… pretty good. One can’t really screw rice up… or steamed broccoli… The corn and cheese tamales however couldn’t leave their wrapper home. As soon and I opened the up, they started either crumbling apart or stayed stuck to the leaves. The flavor was okay, but the mixture of the rice and tamale was great. One of the things I have to give props on is that I could tell that they used very fresh ingredients for each dish.
My friend had the same steamed vegetable plate as I. The same macaroni and cheese, but with fresh steamed green beans and roasted red potatoes. I think she also got the rice pilaf.
Then there was burgers… the Texas Raised Kobe Beef Burger $7.95… which I totally forgot to ask how it was… It looked pretty scrumptious, but Texas Raised Kobe? I have yet to try… must put that on the to do list!
With beef, comes turkey! The ground turkey patty reminds me of Boca, just lighter in color… but I bet it tasted a lot better than Boca burgers. $5.95.
This is one of those places that makes Austin unique. Small eatery, small dives, neighborhood setting. If I lived in Austin, I would definitely go back on Sundays to just chill with friends, eat lots of battered fries, and wash away my hangover with a big tall Screwdriver.
